Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

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Naruto sat at his new training grounds contemplating what he could do to complete his mission. He would need to guarantee that his subject, Sasuke Uchiha, would pass the first two tests in relatively good condition. Furthermore he had to bring the Uchiha up to par so that if there were preliminaries he could pass. Naruto himself planned to make it past the second round and forfeit his match, whether it was in the preliminary round or in the finals. His mission was to make sure the Uchiha made it to the third round and nothing else. Naruto meditated to check his chakra flow since his newest enhancement from Danzo-sama.

Sasuke came to training ground 7 and observed a grey haired teen sitting on one of the training logs in a meditative pose. The teen looked older then himself and also was dressed like some in some very generic shinobi clothes. He decided to wait and see if this stranger would present himself or wait until his teammate got there.

"Oi, who are you?" yelled his teammate from behind his back.

Sakura was confused as to why a somewhat handsome older boy was doing at her team's training ground. No one else was supposed to use this area unless they were coming to work with her team. The fact that Kakashi-sensei had not told them that was happening caused her to yell at this new comer.

"He is your new teammate for the duration of the chunin exams. He is here to participate and advance in rank," said Kakashi as he used the Shunshin no Jutsu to get into the clearing.

"Why do we need him?" asked Sakura.

"The test is for three man teams only. He is an older genin that needed a team and so the Hokage placed him on our squad until the exams are over. We will practice team exercises to get accustomed to the new member in the mornings and then we will spar individually for the afternoon."

"So you are entering us into the chunin exams? Then why would the Hokage give us a useless teammate?" complained Sasuke.

"Why do you believe he is useless?" asked Kakashi.

"Well he is several years older than us by appearance and yet still is a genin. How could he not be weak if he has not passed a simple test?" said Sasuke.

"I have never taken these exams," Naruto spoke for the first time as he got off the log and approached the rest of the team.

"What is up with your voice?" asked Sakura.

Naruto remained quiet, remembering his orders from Kakashi. Sakura thought he was ignoring her and so reached out to punch his 'egotistical head,' in her opinion. What she was not expecting was for Naruto to grab her wrist and twist it behind her and have his arm around her throat cutting off her air supply.

"Naruto! Drop her now," ordered Kakashi. He was worried for Sakura's continued existence and was impressed by the speed with which Naruto had taken her out.

"Hai," was Naruto's quick reply before dropping the struggling Sakura. As Sakura continued to gasp for air as Naruto was told to not harm his new teammates in such a way again. When Sakura was able to speak again she was told to not attack Naruto again and also told that he was following orders by not speaking to her.

"Why can't he talk to me and how is the team to function if we can't communicate?" asked an irate Sakura while rubbing her throat and glaring at Naruto.

"He doesn't talk to women because his voice has 'affects' on them. If he needs to say something he will speak to the team as a whole with as few words as possible. If you say something to him he will nod," Kakashi glanced at Naruto to get confirmation," to tell you he understood. Now I know this will be awkward but it is just for a week before the exams and the exams themselves. You can deal with it for that long."

"Fine, so what should we do now?" said Sakura.

Kakashi explained the exercise they were to do and the team set out. They were to run an obstacle course that had several traps and other diversions. They had to do it with chakra suppression seals lining the whole course. Sasuke tried to take up position as leader but Naruto showed that he had experience with this kind of training with how he ran it. This led to an awkward situation in the trap lined maze portion when Naruto broke one way and the other two ran the other. Naruto went back and 'saved' his team from a few traps. He then proceeded to knock them out and drag them through the course. Kakashi smacked himself in the face when he saw Naruto carry the other team members and still complete the course in a decent time.

"Naruto, why are they unconscious?"

"They did not follow my lead, despite the fact I had not led them astray. I went back for them and saw them setting off several traps at once. I proceeded to 'save' them. But in an actual mission they most likely would have been at least rendered unconscious, so I proceeded to afflict them as such to make the test more realistic. I then completed the course without leaving them behind."

"Well, if you had not detoured or knocked them out you could have beaten the course record, although it is just set at chunin level," remarked Kakashi.

"I will do better in the future," claimed Naruto who felt he had failed.

"Given the circumstances you did very well. Next time though do not knock out your team. Can you please wake them up now?"

"Hai," said Naruto as he did a one-handed seal for a small (suiton) jutsu.

The other two teens sputtered awake. Both had similar thoughts of killing one grey-haired boy. Sasuke was thinking of how easy the test seemed to Naruto and was wondering what power he may have. Sakura was wondering how the teen could be so callus to others. He just seemed so aloof from everyone else. It didn't even seem like he was trying to make this team situation work, like it was just an assignment.

"Well, that could have gone better. Let us move on to sparring," said Kakashi. He decided to pit Naruto with Sakura. Whoever won that match would be pitted against Sasuke.

"Ok, no crippling blows," Kakashi got a nod from Naruto. "Ok, begin."

Sakura smirked and ran at Naruto to try and catch him with a right hook. Naruto simply grabbed her wrist and fell backwards onto his back. Sakura was dragged with him. Naruto's feet met her stomach and then she was airborne. The next thing Sakura knew was that she was hammer fisted down towards the ground. A clone Naruto created caught the unconscious konoichi.

"Well, Naruto won. Sasuke step into the ring," called Kakashi as he grabbed Sakura and set her down to rest.

When the match was signaled to begin Sasuke threw some shuriken with wires attached. Naruto didn't move and as the wires were going to tighten around him they suddenly were cut. Sasuke decided to activate his sharingan to see what happened. Faster than he could see Naruto was in his face. Sasuke blocked as many of the multitude of punches as he could. One got in his guard and he was sent flying back towards some trees. He righted himself and looked for Naruto. He jumped right as some hands flew out from underneath him. But as he fired of a fire ball towards the hole Naruto had popped out of. Naruto did nothing but go up in smoke. Sasuke grinned thinking he had won until a fist connected with his back causing him to let out a silent scream. Naruto then shoved a sebon into a pressure point to knock him out.

"Naruto wins again," sighed Kakashi. He really didn't expect much different. Naruto was Ne trained but he did think that after what happened earlier that both his students would be more cautious.

"Well, I'll watch these two until they wake up. How about you go get some food, we are done for the day."

"Hai."

It was going to be a long week, thought Kakashi as Naruto jogged away.

XXX

Over the course of the week Kakashi tried to learn more about Naruto. Nothing was forthcoming. The spars and teamwork exercises told him very little. He knew Naruto was physically tough and that came off during their training. He displayed very few jutsu and no enhancements past his strange voice. His stamina was one of his more impressive attributes. He could out last any of them and the few time that Kakashi tested him on genjutsu showed he was unaffected by any that he knew of. Kakashi was left with nothing spectacular to report to the Hokage and it made him a little irate that this kid could do that to him. He waited for his team to show up at the academy testing room pondering all he knew about Naruto and New Age.

Naruto was thinking on his most recent orders from Danzo-sama. He knew that the mission he was assigned could go several ways but trusted that Danzo-sama would not do uncalculated risks with his men. He also realized that since meeting the 'team' he was assigned he was finding some emotions, he had reported this through standard protocol and informed them that he was feeling exacerbated and feeling undue annoyance towards his 'team.' He acknowledged his 'team' as they approached him near the entrance of the academy. When they got to the second floor the Uchiha blurted out that there was a genjutsu. Naruto had to control himself to not smack his subject for making his task infinitely more difficult. As the Uchiha was challenged by an older genin Naruto finally had enough. He grabbed the Uchiha's wrist and dragged him to the testing room, much to his 'teammates' annoyance.

Kakashi watched as a slightly irritable Naruto drag a struggling Sasuke as a pissed off Sakura followed. It amused and worried the copy-nin that Naruto's first outward show of emotions was annoyance at his team members. Amused because of what emotion came out and who the emotion was directed toward; worried because he didn't know if Naruto could handle emotions and may act on them, which could end with his other two teammates dead.

"You guys a running a tad late, but so is the proctor. Head inside and settle down," said Kakashi.

XXX

AN: Next chapter is the first and second exams.

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